1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to portable, collapsible, outdoor furniture, and more particularly relates to a collapsible stand usable for securely supporting a portable cooler or other bulky object.
2. Description of the Problem
Portable coolers for the stowage and transport of beverages enjoy great popularity. Anyone attending a picnic or sporting event xe2x80x9ctail-gatexe2x80x9d party is familiar with these coolers, typically laid on the ground and filled with ice, beverages and other items requiring refrigeration. Users of these coolers just as quickly become familiar with the discomfort of crouching or bending over to retrieve items from the coolers, particularly if the items are buried in ice. It would be desirable to provide a means of raising such coolers to about waist height for the convenience of picnickers.
The invention provides a portable cooler stand having a collapsed or folded configuration for transportation and an unfolded configuration for supporting a cooler off the ground within easy reach of users. The stand has four support legs. The legs are positionable roughly at the corners of a rectangle, with each support leg linked to two adjacent support legs by a pair of folding struts. Two parallel load bars are pivotally connected to two adjacent support legs and may be extended to attach temporarily to the remaining two support legs to fix the length of the support cooler in its unfolded condition. One or more flexible belts are connected between the load bars to support a cooler or similar bulky object between the load bars. Under the weight of the cooler the load bars move toward one another until they contact the cooler, which fixes the width of the stand and complements the structure""s rigidity. The folding struts are jointed, and are attached at each of two ends to a support member using a pivot connection. The stand support legs and load bars may be fabricated from aluminum tubes, and capped to improve presentability.
Additional effects, features and advantages will be apparent in the written description that follows.